The Fateful Holocaust Secret

A mother who buried her Jewish identity, and her son’s astonishing quest to reclaim it.

Tom Gale never knew what hit him. En route to a weekend home from college, he was cruising along a Canadian highway at 95 mph in his bright red Triumph Spitfire. The nasal decongestant he’d taken that morning made him drowsy.

“I took my eyes off the road for a minute,” Tom recalled, “and that’s all it takes at 95 mph.”

The convertible, with its top down, rolled over him.

Tom awoke two weeks later. “Most of the bones in my body were broken, including all my ribs. The doctors kept me unconscious during those first, most painful weeks. It was more humane.”

Tom’s odds against living were set at 1,000 to one. But since he was young and in top physical shape, his body was able to fight back. “During those two weeks I lost 80 pounds. When I woke up, I didn’t even recognize myself.”

Tom had a massive spinal injury which left the lower half of his body paralyzed.

Born of strong stock, Tom came to relish the challenge. “I resolved to move my toe. As the furthest extremity from my brain, it was my most effective way to demonstrate voluntary muscle control.”

One day he felt his toe twitch. He was able to move it! Surgeons flew in from around the country to witness this groundbreaking achievement.

After 18 months of intense physical therapy, Tom managed to struggle back to his feet and walk with a cane.

“The doctors put the odds against that at 5,000 to one.”

The Search

The accident shook Tom to the core. “Facing mortality always gets you thinking,” he says.

He began to explore spirituality.

Tom grew up in a Christian home, the eldest of four children. “My mother strongly believed in God, and always said she was Christian. But she had no religious observance and never stepped inside a Church. I never knew why.”

There were other unexplained things as well: His mother’s staunch support of Israel. The aunt who had a Jewish home. And the grandmother who kept a box of matzah hidden under her bed.

A voracious reader, Tom explored the gamut of religions, from the traditional to the bizarre. He didn’t find what he was looking for.

But at one lecture he met the woman who would soon become his wife.

Katherine had grown up on a farm in rural Ontario, with a similar religious upbringing as Tom. The foundation of her home was a strong belief in God, without Christian overtones or imagery.

Gershom’s mother never uttered a word about the secret buried deep inside.

One day in 1983 Tom wandered into a Jewish bookstore in Toronto. “I told the man I wanted to study Talmud,” he recalls. “He looked at me rather strangely, then handed me an English translation of Tractate Brachot.”

Tom devoured the material. “I can’t explain it,” he says, “but it was pulling me like a magnet.”

One time Tom was reading the Talmud and weeping. His mother asked, “What’s the matter?”

“It’s just so beautiful,” he said. “This is speaking to me. I feel like I’m experiencing a ‘call home.’”

Tom’s mother didn’t say a word. But as he would eventually discover, it required superhuman effort to hold herself back.

In the meantime, Tom’s wife was looking on with curiosity. One day he brought home a copy of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s “Living Torah.” Katherine read it and said, “I’ve been looking for truth my entire life. The answer is here. Now what do we do?”

Tom opened the phone book and called a rabbi who happened to be Orthodox. They began studying for conversion.

It took nearly five years, but when the conversion was finalized, Tom and Katherine – now Gershom and Dinah – fulfilled their dream and, along with their two young sons, moved to Israel.

Gershom was hired as an editor for the Jerusalem Post, where he would work for the next 25 years.

Warsaw, 1939

Gershom’s mother grew up as Miriam Zimmerman in a Jewish family in the Polish city of Lodz. They celebrated Shabbat and the Jewish holidays. In 1939, when the Nazis invaded Poland, Miriam’s father thought it would be safer in the larger city of Warsaw.

The move proved inauspicious. In time, the Nazi beasts clamped down on Warsaw’s 400,000 Jews, herding them into a 1.3 square-mile cage called the Warsaw Ghetto.

At the tender age of 13, Miriam became surrounded by starvation, disease, and deadly beatings at the hands of uniformed monsters.

The Zimmerman family lived in a cramped room. Miriam, whose blonde hair and blue eyes gave her a “gentile look,” was sent daily to forage for food.

By the spring of 1943, Miriam’s father decided that their prospect of survival was slim in the Ghetto, and they must go into hiding on Warsaw’s “Aryan” side.

Through the kindness of a Christian woman named Christine Panek, Miriam’s family was able to obtain false Christian papers.

Miriam Zimmerman henceforth became known as Helena Maria ("Mary") Plochocka, the “cousin” of Christine Panek. Miriam’s mother became her “aunt” Jadwiga Mozdrzvaske. And Miriam’s sister, Chaya, became a “cousin” named Helen.

These new identities became the family's unshakeable guard against getting caught. Throughout the war, they used their Christian names exclusively, and never once spoke of their true relationship as parent, child, sibling.

Even out of the Ghetto, the fear of death was never far. Carrying false papers was not sufficient insurance, as Miriam’s uncle discovered. He was stopped on the street by a group of Gestapo soldiers who demanded that he expose himself. When they saw he was circumcised, they shot him dead.

The Zimmerman family lived in an apartment with Christine, where they often hid in a cupboard so tiny that they were truly in danger of suffocating. "We were constantly petrified that our secret would be discovered and that we would all be killed," Miriam later recalled.

One time the apartment was broken into by a bunch of Nazis. A stormtrooper shoved Miriam into the bathroom, put a gun to her head and said: “If you do anything, I will shoot you right here.” Miriam looked up at him very calmly and said: “If you shoot me, I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

He left her unharmed.

One day in 1944, pandemonium broke loose when a German officer was killed in the Wola district of Warsaw where Miriam’s family lived. The German response was a rampage of shooting, looting and raping of Poles. Forty Polish men were taken out of their homes and shot dead.

Miriam heard shots in the street. She ran outside. There she found her father... lying in a pile... of dead bodies.

A few weeks later, Miriam awoke at 2 a.m. to find someone sitting on her bed. It was her dead father: “I came to warn you. This house will be bombed in the next 10 minutes. You must get to shelter immediately.” Miriam believed it strongly enough to wake up her mother and sister and convince them to follow her. As soon as they exited, the building blew up.

Death March

Although they had Christian papers, Miriam, along with her mother and sister, were rounded up as “Polish political prisoners” and deported in a cattle car. “The heat was oppressive and we had no water to drink,” Miriam says. “Little droplets of water appeared on the walls of the train car, created by the breath of all the trapped people, and we tried to lick the droplets off the walls because we were so thirsty.”

As a “Christian,” Miriam was given a “red triangle” patch designated for political prisoners.

Soon after Miriam was transferred to Buchenwald. Conditions in that camp were unspeakable, with widespread starvation, disease, human experimentation, backbreaking labor, and execution. One time an SS officer kicked Miriam in the side of the face – knocking out half her teeth and breaking her jaw. “I could never open my mouth properly after this happened,” she says.

Miriam, at age 17, weighed 80 pounds.

Due to malnutrition, her legs became covered with oozing boils. "The sores were so deep that I could put my finger into them and touch the bone in my leg," she says.

She was forced to stand for hours in the cold, with bare feet and hands. To this day, her swollen hands are a grim reminder of freezing in Buchenwald.

In the spring of 1945, with the Soviet Red Army rapidly approaching, the Nazi machine decided to exterminate as many prisoners as possible, in order to “silence the accusing witnesses.” As the Russians neared closer and closer, the SS forced 20,000 prisoners on a death march.

For three weeks, Miriam, her mother and sister slogged through the freezing German countryside. Anyone who couldn’t keep up was shot on the spot. Eighty-five percent did not survive the march.

“We found dirty water to drink... and occasionally found some animal food,” Miriam recalls.

One day, their group was guarded by a single teenage soldier. When he fell asleep, the women sought to tear him to bits. But Miriam considered another idea: She threw his rifle into the river. When the soldier heard it hitting the water, he woke up to see 300 angry women staring down at him. He quickly ran away.

The women wandered into the town of Plzen, Czechoslovakia. The war was finally over. “A man came out of church with a little boy in his arms and stared at us,” Miriam recalls. “I saw his eyes go to my oozing legs with disgust.” The man handed Miriam his shoes and then went to bring them food.

Miriam, her mother and sister, who all miraculously survived, were sent to a displaced persons camp in Aschaffenburg, Germany. A Canadian Army officer named Arthur Gale had been appointed by the United Nations as director of the camp. Arthur didn't know any Polish and needed someone to interpret. The promise of extra food made Miriam Zimmerman immediately volunteer, despite knowing no more than 20 words of English.

As Miriam and Arthur spent more time together, they became good friends and decided to get married. "I told Arthur that I was Jewish," she says, "and he said he did not care at all."

(Miriam's sister Helen met a Jewish-American soldier and had a Jewish wedding in the DP camp. They were happily married for 68 years and lived a Jewish life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Helen’s husband died in 2013.)

Meanwhile, newlyweds Miriam and Arthur Gale moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, where they raised a family of two boys and two girls.

Miriam tried to use her war lessons to help others. “I raised my kids to be tolerant and we welcomed immigrant families into our home,” she recalls. When neighbors from Jamaica encountered discrimination, Miriam “adopted” them. When refugees from China and Sri Lanka showed up in Toronto, Miriam moved them into her house and helped them get settled. “I did these things because of what Christine Panek did for us in order to save our lives in Poland.”

Miriam kept her mother and sister under a strict oath of secrecy.

And yet, Miriam was so traumatized from the war that decade after decade she insisted that her mother and sister perpetuate the charade of "a Christian family, whose father was a fallen Polish general, and whose mother had died of cancer." Under an oath of absolute secrecy, Miriam's mother and sister acted as “the auntie and cousin who adopted her” – forbidden from ever revealing anything about their real family background.

Miriam says: “I learned that to be Jewish meant tragedy … I simply thought about what I needed to do to keep myself and my family alive."

Imagine the irony of their oldest child, Tom, experiencing a near-fatal car crash and then "converting" to Judaism.

Only later would he find out what a massive internal struggle his mother's silence was.

Revelation

Miriam remained in contact with Christine Panek, the righteous gentile who'd saved her life during the war without ever accepting money. Over the years, Miriam would send gift packages, and even went to Poland to visit Christine.

In 2006, to celebrate her 80th birthday, Miriam took a second trip to Poland, accompanied by her daughter. While visiting the spot where her father was murdered, Miriam could no longer control herself.

“I could see the bodies again and smell the burning rubber,” she says. “The trauma of my father’s death was right in front of my eyes.”

By this time, Miriam had two heart attacks, and the doctors told her she would not survive a third. The secret of her Jewish identity had been weighing heavily all these years, and she didn’t want to take that fact to the grave.

Plus, Miriam no longer had the strength to hold it all in.

Her iron will broke.

Twenty-five years after her son Tom converted and became Gershom, she told her stunned daughter: “We are not who you think we are. We are Jews.”

Miriam made her daughter swear not to tell anyone, even Gershom. And although the secret remained largely under wraps, slowly the walls came down. In 2010, Miriam’s other daughter, Christine (named after Christine Panek), became engaged to a Jewish man. Miriam again revealed the secret, telling her daughter: "You might as well have a Jewish wedding!"

Yet Gershom still didn’t know the truth. One day, his younger son Joshua was in Canada and asked his grandmother point-blank: “If you are Jewish, I have a right to know.” She broke down and revealed it. That’s how Gershom found out.

“I always suspected that Mum was Jewish,” Gershom told Aish.com from his home on the outskirts of Jerusalem. “Over the years I asked her several times if she was Jewish, and she always answered, ‘No, I’m Christian.’ She was very firm about it, and since she's my mother, I had no reason to doubt her word.”

Still, there were various signs over the years. Dinah recalls one incident: “The phone rang at home and when Miriam answered, the caller shouted ‘Jew!’” She was afraid she’d been discovered and that they were coming to get her. She turned white as a sheet.”

Gershom recalls an occasion when his grandmother had a panic attack. The Volkswagen Kübelwagen was used as a Nazi staff car during World War II. In the early 1970s it was sold commercially in North America as "The Thing." “My grandmother saw such a car driving down the road in Canada and she freaked out. She thought she was back in Poland.”

There were other signs as well. Dinah describes how before she was married, Gershom’s grandmother “leaned across the table, looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Katherine is a Jewish name.’ I didn’t know what she meant at the time. In retrospect it was her way of saying: ‘Judaism is important and I want you to go in that direction.’”

Was Gershom upset with his mother for keeping the secret all those years?

“At first I was very angry. I had gone through a lengthy and unnecessary conversion process, and she stood silently while it was all happening. In exasperation, I told her: ‘You’ve been lying to me all my life!’ I eventually came to understand that she did it for my own protection. She endured a lifelong trauma and didn’t want me to ever repeat it.”

What about Arthur Gale? Gershom says: “My father once told me that Mum had a secret that only he knew. But he wouldn’t share with me what it was.”

What about Miriam’s sister, Helen, sworn to secrecy all those years? Gershom says: “She has apologized profusely for not saying anything all along, but my mother had her under strict oath not to tell.”

Destiny’s Child

Gershom Gale has accomplished a lot in life – variously as an editor, physicist, musician, artist and poet. But the near-fatal auto accident of decades ago has taken its toll. Gershom is now battling a variety of health problems and is confined to a wheelchair.

I tell Gershom how we occasionally hear stories of people who find out later in life that they’re Jewish, and then actively pursue it. But how many people have gone through a full Orthodox conversion, then only subsequently – in this case, decades later – come to realize they were born Jewish?”

At this, Gershom gets reflective. “The moment before the accident I recall looking up and thinking, ‘I’ve got it made.’ I took personal credit for my muscles, my brains, and my car. I was headed for who-knows-what kind of life. But the accident made me stop and think. Eventually I made a life in Israel. I came home.”

While Miriam has visited Gershom in Israel twice, she remains traumatized by the memories of having seen people shot, poisoned, hanged, and thrown out of windows. She has persistent “nightmares and deep fears,” terrified that should she admit, “I am a Jew," the hatred and horrors will revolve again.

For 60 years she kept her Buchenwald prisoner coat hidden in a box, along with her prisoner patch – number 29943.

But the secret is no more.

Miriam now eagerly shares her story in recent TV and newspaper interviews, and a brand new Holocaust memoir for Canada's Azrieli Foundation, entitled "Identity Lost and Found."

Why did Miriam decide to tell her story now?

“The people in my past died because they were Jews, and I am still afraid to admit who I am.”

“I want to make amends with the people in my past, and I feel guilty for not carrying on the traditions of the Jewish people,” she says. “They all died because they were Jews and I am still afraid to admit who I am.”

Another reason is more personal: Miriam seeks to purge her demons.

“I feel like I am on a seesaw and sometimes I think that it is too late to change my life story,” she says. “My secrets are hanging me and they are very hard to undo. I feel like they are choking me to death.”

"I hope that telling my story will help with my flashbacks and that the truth will untangle me somehow. I am like a pot bubbling with lies and need to tell the truth rather than continue stirring the lies. But the prospect of telling the truth still terrifies me."

And what about her Jewish son who “converted” and made aliyah?

"I am pleased that some members of my family are carrying on the Jewish traditions that I learned as a child,” she says. “It is like a miracle to me that of all the religions, Gershom picked Judaism. Maybe it was his destiny."

Related Articles:

About the Author

Rabbi Shraga Simmons spent his childhood trekking through snow in Buffalo, New York. He holds a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. In 1997 he became the founding editor of Aish.com, and later the founder and director of the Torah study website, JewishPathways.com.

An expert on media bias, Simmons was the founding editor of HonestReporting.com, building it into a leading database of pro-Israel activists, where his work was cited by the New York Times as effecting sweeping changes in Mideast media coverage. He is the author of the definitive treatment of the topic, David & Goliath: The Explosive Inside Story of Media Bias in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2012), which James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal calls "of crucial importance for the future of the Middle East."

In 2012, Simmons produced the critically-acclaimed short film, "Red Line on Iran," outlining a peaceful solution to stopping nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

Rabbi Simmons currently serves as the Director of Aish Communications, handling all marketing, public relations and media activities for Aish HaTorah International.

Visitor Comments: 35

(31)
pedro,
January 4, 2015 5:37 AM

Reading this is interesting to me knowing that many people have suffered,from the evil thoughts and actions Adolf Hitler made which were wrong. There is this book called "Night"
this book is very touching and makes you think about what they have suffered,but also when they would of like to safe one of there family members from being murdered but they couldn't because they would get murdered too.This is what I read in the book called "Night" about a family that ends up being sent to a concentration
Camp.

(30)
Anonymous,
December 8, 2014 3:37 PM

Heartbreaking

Through the heartbreak and the fear please remember that through your son you are so very blessed. Peace and blessings to you Miriam and to all of us. We are one people who suffer and rejoice together as one.

(29)
Miriam,
December 8, 2014 7:30 AM

Secrets

I was born after the war and, although my family had lived in Australia for generations, my mother insisted that my sister and I not be told of our Jewish heritage, despite my father's wish to do so. She was terrified that "it would all happen again". It was not until after she died that I discovered the truth and embraced Judaism. It felt like a homecoming- and it was. Although initially angry at the deception, I came to realise that she had simply wished to protect us. I will never know what it cost her to do so..

(28)
Anonymous,
January 12, 2014 4:36 PM

An amazing story of bravery and love

Dear Miriam! I am just so moved by you stories. What happened to you in buchenwald was too horrible to even contemplate. I am so happy that you have come back to your people. We love you so much. I feel as if a long lost member of my family has been found. I pray that your son, Gershom, who has also struggled and fought to remain alive, will be well. His Jewish Neshama! which came from YOU, is very strong!!

(27)
Anonymous,
January 2, 2014 1:45 AM

Thank you

Dear Miriam, You are an incedible darling for having the courage to finally share your story; I thank you for it. I am going to save it along with other stories I keep that I regard as treasured stories from the lives of God's Chosen People. May God grant you the sense of peace and security you so greatly deserve.
with Love,
from a Friend you have never met

(26)
William,
November 1, 2013 9:21 PM

Welcome back, Miriam.

What a moving story!! I feel sorry for you, Miriam. But at last you can rest with the knowledge that you son will carry on the Jewish tradition of life, the one you so desperately tried to hide in fear of your own life. Welcome to the world, Miriam. May God keep you in His care.

(25)
Ann Canada,
October 17, 2013 2:53 PM

I love this story...and you too, dear Miriam. B'H

(24)
Magda,
October 15, 2013 3:39 PM

Thank G-d

I am always terribly trembling every time I read the word "Ghetto". I don't experience any of the camps but I can feel the atmosphere since I visited the Shanghai Ghetto. Thank you very much for telling the story.

(23)
Anonymous,
October 4, 2013 4:37 AM

Were totally bombed out by this story!!!!

(22)
Barbara,
October 3, 2013 8:09 PM

Ooooooooh the secret....

My grandmother escaped the holocaust, she immigrated to the US where she met her husband and raised 6 kids. 3 boys and 3 girls. None of her children ever knew she was a dutch jew.My grandmother and I were close. When I was 10 she told me she was jewish. It is my understanding that Jewish law dictates that if your mother is jewish than you are jewish and so it goes, my grandmother, my mother, myself, my children. Recently, my uncle was putting together a family chart, during a conversation with him he shared that he could not locate a birth certificate for his mother (my grandmother) in the state of NY and his research was stuck. I informed him that his mom was born in Holland and was a dutch jew. It upset him that she had shared with me but not him. However I understand as this uncle was her first born and she had only escaped shortly before.I LOVED when my grandmother made challa and blintzes. Now, I make challa. Im proud of my heritage.

(21)
Katherine,
October 1, 2013 6:21 AM

Many hid

I was twelve when the Tanach stated speaking to me, especially the verses about Hashem bringing us back. I asked my grandfather where we are from. Three years later, he told me our hidden last name: Stasewicz. Any others out there?

William,
November 1, 2013 9:30 PM

Yes, Katherine.

Yes. Katherine, there are many more people, like Miriam, who long to "come out" with their Yiddishkeit, but afraid for one reason or another. There were few such cases, of "coming out", recently in Poland, and many more will follow, in time. Jewish people will never die out! NEVER!

(20)
Maria,
September 30, 2013 7:09 PM

Coming into our true selves

Thanks for sharing your story, Gershom. Many of us were also, unfortunately, deprived of a jewish upbringing. The fear of discrimination, the terrors of past persecutions and monstruosities perpetrated against us always present, always pushing our elders into hiding, developing in them the fierce determination to protect their own at all cost. And cost it did. Leaving us, the new generations, with this sense of void, and this profound longing nothing seems to quell. And so, we start looking desperately into every philosophy, into every religion, even giving some of them a try, to no avail. But, when we find Judaism we know we have finally found home. Yes, it is our destiny, and one that we embrace with ardor and utmost gratitude. Home, at last; we are home!

Ann Canada,
October 17, 2013 2:51 PM

Dear Maria, you described so well that quest for answers and belonging, in religions and philosophies, and finally feeling that sense of finding home when we arrive at Judaism and our Jewishness. I had to search back to 1635 before I learned we were not Catholics. And further back to learn we were not always Huguenots, either. It always amazes me how, when we find our Ancestors, they reach forward to us as we reach back to them, in a bond of love and joy. To be found, remembered, honored, given names and voices...

(19)
Dodi Lasovich,
September 30, 2013 6:44 PM

Beautiful story and like so many other families w secrets. My Father's family were jews they did not disclose. Being hispanic and jewish ..better to be silent.

(18)
Mary,
September 30, 2013 6:01 PM

Inspiring

TThe story of this family is truly inspiring.

(17)
Joan Michel,
September 30, 2013 3:33 PM

MUST-READ STEPHEN J DUBNER "CHOOSING MY RELIGION"

His parents were born S. Paul Dubner[1] and Florence Greenglass. His parents, separately, converted to Catholicism from Judaism. After their baptism, they renamed themselves Paul and Veronica. Dubner grew up in Duanesburg, New York, the youngest of eight children, and received a devout Roman Catholic upbringing.[2]Dubner has explained his own choice to practice Judaism as an adult as follows: "I did not grow up Jewish, but my parents did....But for my parents—and now, for me, as I am becoming a Jew—there is a pointed difference. We have chosen our religion, rejecting what we inherited for what we felt we needed."[2]

(16)
Caryl,
September 30, 2013 4:36 AM

Inspiring

Thank you for sharing your life with us. This is deeply moving and should be read by as many as possible.

(15)
Dinah,
September 30, 2013 3:17 AM

i need to find the Zimmerman Family

Shalom, I writing out of a shocked heart after reading The Fateful Holocaust Secret!!you see, I have been searching hard for my family The Zimmerman family for a decade now. Truth is, our family's name was changed, and the Zimmerman name was the secret and our true name!! . I researched the where abouts of my family, but was told they were last seen being herded into a box car.. and persumed dead.im very anxious to find out if this is MY FAMILY!! Please Please can you put me into contact with Gershom and Dinah . Please I have a good feeling that these people could be the family Ive been trying to find.By Hashems grace please put us in touch.

Efraim rivkin,
October 1, 2013 3:25 AM

family of zimmerman

my great great grandfather was efraim tzimmerman he had a daugter leah and he was shot with a sefer torah rapped around him by the natzis yemach shmo

(14)
Evelyn Wilson,
September 30, 2013 12:36 AM

Riveting story.

I was born in 1935. Though I was a child I remember the war. My parents always read the newspapers, listened to the news on the radio, and there were newsreels with the movies in the local theaters. I was raised believing that the Jews were God's chosen people. I love God. I pray for Israel and His people. I am His child. Thank you for this story.

(13)
michele,
September 30, 2013 12:06 AM

sad and hopeful

My own background is similar but I lost my memory after we were kidnapped separately and taken to the death camps in the 1960s. A second time for my family, a first for me. I was living in Israel with relatives.. I lost my memory about that portion of my life. I remember being jewish. After everything, we too changed. The menorahs were gone but we kids were not baptized until my mother made arragements. She never went to church. No one in my family did. I never went after baptism under forced circumstances. My father, could never tell me what religion his family was. They were all different and had tragic background as well. I am angry that we were raped of ourselves as well as raped and tortured. My mother just looks around the room when I asked. We were made over too. I heard it's called the spray because we were sprayed all over and lost ouselves.I am so happy you found yourselves back!

(12)
Dorothy Hirsch,
September 30, 2013 12:02 AM

this account of how survivors coped with incredible obstacles is almost incredible. It should be disseminated widely. I planto do my share

(11)
Rachel,
September 29, 2013 11:02 PM

Revelation

Similar story I heard from Gradma... Thank you for sharing

(10)
Galit,
September 29, 2013 10:41 PM

Secrets out !

Thank you for this story. Keeping painful secrets is very difficult and reveals to us the depth of Miriam's trauma and suffering.

(9)
Margarita,
September 29, 2013 9:18 PM

interesting story

very interesting story. surely going through such a horrible trauma people made many decisions influenced by it. what a horrible secret to live with..... it would be interesting to learn more about the rest of the family.

(8)
Judy Wubnig,
September 29, 2013 7:51 PM

Remkes Kooistra, Where Was God?

Remkes Kooistra interviews Holocaust survivors in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, Where Was God?, which may be of interest.

(7)
Maxine,
September 29, 2013 7:35 PM

Discriminatio

I just read this article and after reading the part where Miriam helped her neighbor and others, because of discrimination, I had to take a long break. I was denied a job because of my nationality and I thought to myself this is how the Holocaust must have started. One discrimination against a person to discrimination against a whole nation of people. I was touched by this story and the strength of Miriam. Thank you.

(6)
Richard Fendrich,
September 29, 2013 5:19 PM

Honored to learn of this

Honored to know this story of Holocaust. Thank you...I have met many survivors over time. Learning this, one more story, humbles me, makes me stronger in my own Jewish identity.

Thank you

(5)
Daisy Harari mayer,
September 29, 2013 5:08 PM

Converted

Yes it s hard to see that here in brasil we have many people that knew they were Jewish, and they are here when the inquisition was in Spain and protugal, and others family became Christians during the 2 ,war it's a pity . But I from Egypt, and I always say am Israel Kay, and we will continue to be Jewish.

(4)
Mark Saint John,
September 29, 2013 4:44 PM

The courage of endurance and the bravery of facing her demons.

A remarkable tale indeed. Thanks to this womans courage tales of the Holocaust will live on. We must never forget what happened nor forget those who rose above their suffering. Shalom.

(3)
Michal,
September 29, 2013 4:29 PM

Deeply impressing

I want to thank you for writing this article for us.I am deeply moved. Firstly, by all the sufferings, this woman endured, and secondly, by seeing, how Hashem takes His children home. Baruch Hu.

(2)
Frima,
September 29, 2013 4:19 PM

As I was growing up after the war in Poland I a Jewish girl experienced some antisemitism but I have to also say that both of my parent survive the war because of Polish people who help them with hiding, food and information. After my parent came to USA they were financially helping these people. This story I just read is very moving and remains me of what I was being told by my parents and others.

I just got married and have an important question: Can we eat rice on Passover? My wife grew up eating it, and I did not. Is this just a matter of family tradition?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

The Torah instructs a Jew not to eat (or even possess) chametz all seven days of Passover (Exodus 13:3). "Chametz" is defined as any of the five grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye) that came into contact with water for more than 18 minutes. Chametz is a serious Torah prohibition, and for that reason we take extra protective measures on Passover to prevent any mistakes.

Hence the category of food called "kitniyot" (sometimes referred to generically as "legumes"). This includes rice, corn, soy beans, string beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, mustard, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Even though kitniyot cannot technically become chametz, Ashkenazi Jews do not eat them on Passover. Why?

Products of kitniyot often appear like chametz products. For example, it can be hard to distinguish between rice flour (kitniyot) and wheat flour (chametz). Also, chametz grains may become inadvertently mixed together with kitniyot. Therefore, to prevent confusion, all kitniyot were prohibited.

In Jewish law, there is one important distinction between chametz and kitniyot. During Passover, it is forbidden to even have chametz in one's possession (hence the custom of "selling chametz"). Whereas it is permitted to own kitniyot during Passover and even to use it - not for eating - but for things like baby powder which contains cornstarch. Similarly, someone who is sick is allowed to take medicine containing kitniyot.

What about derivatives of kitniyot - e.g. corn oil, peanut oil, etc? This is a difference of opinion. Many will use kitniyot-based oils on Passover, while others are strict and only use olive or walnut oil.

Finally, there is one product called "quinoa" (pronounced "ken-wah" or "kin-o-ah") that is permitted on Passover even for Ashkenazim. Although it resembles a grain, it is technically a grass, and was never included in the prohibition against kitniyot. It is prepared like rice and has a very high protein content. (It's excellent in "cholent" stew!) In the United States and elsewhere, mainstream kosher supervision agencies certify it "Kosher for Passover" -- look for the label.

Interestingly, the Sefardi Jewish community does not have a prohibition against kitniyot. This creates the strange situation, for example, where one family could be eating rice on Passover - when their neighbors will not. So am I going to guess here that you are Ashkenazi and your wife is Sefardi. Am I right?

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (1194-1270), known as Nachmanides, and by the acronym of his name, Ramban. Born in Spain, he was a physician by trade, but was best-known for authoring brilliant commentaries on the Bible, Talmud, and philosophy. In 1263, King James of Spain authorized a disputation (religious debate) between Nachmanides and a Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiani. Nachmanides reluctantly agreed to take part, only after being assured by the king that he would have full freedom of expression. Nachmanides won the debate, which earned the king's respect and a prize of 300 gold coins. But this incensed the Church: Nachmanides was charged with blasphemy and he was forced to flee Spain. So at age 72, Nachmanides moved to Jerusalem. He was struck by the desolation in the Holy City -- there were so few Jews that he could not even find a minyan to pray. Nachmanides immediately set about rebuilding the Jewish community. The Ramban Synagogue stands today in Jerusalem's Old City, a living testimony to his efforts.

It's easy to be intimidated by mean people. See through their mask. Underneath is an insecure and unhappy person. They are alienated from others because they are alienated from themselves.

Have compassion for them. Not pity, not condemning, not fear, but compassion. Feel for their suffering. Identify with their core humanity. You might be able to influence them for the good. You might not. Either way your compassion frees you from their destructiveness. And if you would like to help them change, compassion gives you a chance to succeed.

It is the nature of a person to be influenced by his fellows and comrades (Rambam, Hil. De'os 6:1).

We can never escape the influence of our environment. Our life-style impacts upon us and, as if by osmosis, penetrates our skin and becomes part of us.

Our environment today is thoroughly computerized. Computer intelligence is no longer a science-fiction fantasy, but an everyday occurrence. Some computers can even carry out complete interviews. The computer asks questions, receives answers, interprets these answers, and uses its newly acquired information to ask new questions.

Still, while computers may be able to think, they cannot feel. The uniqueness of human beings is therefore no longer in their intellect, but in their emotions.

We must be extremely careful not to allow ourselves to become human computers that are devoid of feelings. Our culture is in danger of losing this essential aspect of humanity, remaining only with intellect. Because we communicate so much with unfeeling computers, we are in danger of becoming disconnected from our own feelings and oblivious to the feelings of others.

As we check in at our jobs, and the computer on our desk greets us with, "Good morning, Mr. Smith. Today is Wednesday, and here is the agenda for today," let us remember that this machine may indeed be brilliant, but it cannot laugh or cry. It cannot be happy if we succeed, or sad if we fail.

Today I shall...

try to remain a human being in every way - by keeping in touch with my own feelings and being sensitive to the feelings of others.

With stories and insights,
Rabbi Twerski's new book Twerski on Machzor makes Rosh Hashanah prayers more meaningful. Click here to order...